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Multisensory Perception and Action

The most recent and most advanced technology is used to investigate how reality – by this we mean human perception and action in the physical world - is generated in our brains. This is accomplished by combining the use of head-mounted displays, three dimensional computer graphics, and highly accurate tracking of body motions. In our experiments individuals are enabled to perceive a three dimensional world, for example the marketplace of Tübingen, on a head-mounted display that is connected to the motions of their physical body. Proceeding this way individuals are provided the experience of a computer-generated “virtual” world that comes very close to their experience of the physical world that they know. In experiments on the perception of oneself we furthermore enable individuals to see a virtual body which they can move with their physical body as if the virtual body would be their own. The purpose of this research is twofold: On one hand, we want to simulate how human reality is produced through the combination of the information that comes from the different senses (multisensory perception). On the other hand, we want to develop science-based Virtual Reality interfaces that can be used by basic research, applied research, and that on a long term can be used for various beneficial purposes within everyday life.

Experimenter strokes physical body with a motion-tracked stick while participant views on a head-mounted display a virtual body (side view) getting stroked in synchrony with the motion of the stick.